306 



Production of Meat on Pastures . 



[July, 



Production on the Poorest Pastures. — Turning to the other 

 end of the scale it may be asked what quantity of meat (or rather 

 of carcass increase, for they do not produce the finished product) 

 our poorest pastures are capable of furnishing on the average 

 of a term of years'? In my paper of September, 1915, I referred 

 briefly to some of the manure and mutton experiments, with 

 which Professor Somerville's name is associated, and without 

 discussing the subject, took the figure of *20 lb. meat per acre 

 as being sufficiently near the annual production for my then 

 purpose. But if attention is directed to the yield of the poorest 

 cultivated pastures this figure is, in fact, too high. The yield is 

 likely to vary from about 12 lb. of lean meat in a poor grazing 

 season to 20 lb. in a good season, and 16 lb. per acre represents 

 the best average that can be expected from the poorest of these 

 clay soil pastures, on which the use of basic slag produces so 

 wonderful an improvement. Some figures in support of this 

 view will now be examined. 



Table II. 



Increase in live weight of sheep grazing very poor pastures 

 in five English counties. 









Average 



County. 



Station. 



Period. 



Seasoti's Inci 

 per acre. 

 lb. 



Northamptonshire 



Cransley 



1901-08 



44 



Cambridgeshire 



East Hatley 



1900-04 



53 



Essex 



Great Yeldham 



1901-03 



30 



Suffolk 



Saxmundham 



1905-15 



75 



Northumberland 



Cockle Park 



1897-1905 



37 



Do. 



Do. 



1906-14 



22 



Do. 



Do. 



1915-20 



31 



Do. 



Do. 



1897-1920 



29 



The live weight increase of sheep grazing very poor clay soil 

 pastures is shown in Table II. The periods to which the figures 

 for increase refer are indicated. The influence of a series of 

 good grazing years is brought out by comparing the increase on 

 the same land at Cockle Park for the periods 1906-14 and 

 1915-20. Although there is some evidence to show that this 

 very poor grass deteriorates slowly under continuous sheep- 

 grazing, it can still respond to very favourable weather and in 

 1920 there was the surprising increase of 54 lb. per acre on the 

 unimproved land at Cockle Park. 



It will be seen from the last column in Table II that of the 

 pastures tested in five counties the grass on the Northumberland 

 farm was the poorest, and as the records in this case are the most 



